The #1 and best Christian affiliate program in existence… but what IS an affiliate program?
God bless you, and thank you for asking! We have received a number of e-mails from people interested in our site, wondering exactly what an “affiliate program” is. Not “our” affiliate program mind you, but what is “an” affiliate program, generally speaking. That is what this page is for, so that when we get this answer in the future, we can forward our future members on to this page. 
So, an affiliate program is quite simply a system where you are compensated for causing someone else’s product to be sold. A commonly asked question is, “Yeah, but how did you know it was me who caused the sale to happen?” Well, that is where this technologically-driven age we now live in comes into play.
OK, so you know who Sears is, right? It’s obviously a major department store, selling appliances, clothing, power tools, and much, much more. Well, like tens of thousands of other businesses with an online presence, they have an affiliate program. They pay you when you refer a buyer to their website, and that buyer in turn makes a purchase.In fact, if you’re curious, just click on this hyperlink to check out their affiliate program on your own (it will open in a new window, and not take you away from this page).
So, let’s say that their affiliate program pays out 5% commissions on major appliances, and you build a “Review website” centered around Washers and Dryers. Your website has in-depth descriptions and overviews of various washer and dryer appliances, and feedback from consumers including comments, ratings, and similarly. Next to each review, you have a picture of the product, and a little button that says, “Buy Now!”, with its associated price. So, are you the one selling the appliance? Well, yes and no.
When the buyer clicks on your “Buy Now!” button, they are taken to the Sears website (or Amazon, or eBay, or whoever is hosting the product). The buyer completes the purchase through the Sears (or Amazon or eBay, etc.) website. You, in turn, get your commission when the transaction clears. Now, real quick and just for hoots and hollers, let’s say that your washer and dryer set sold for $2,500… at 5% commission, you’ve just net yourself a quick $125. Not bad, right?
But how does Sears know to pay you, and not someone else? It’s actually quite easy. When you sign up for the Sears affiliate program, you are given a link that is exclusive to you, and nobody else. So, if someone goes to Sears.com by simply typing http://sears.com, then nobody is making any money, except for Sears.
However, your affiliate code will look differently. It will have extra characters after the sears.com link.
So instead of this:
http://sears.com
Your unique identifier and affiliate link might look like this:
http://sears.com/af-#*+>pozurl/jhsf$()
That (above) is a completely hypothetical and made-up affiliate link, but you get the idea. That last “code” or set of characters after “sears.com” is your unique affiliate identifier. So, you take your affiliate link and “attach” it to a buy now button, or use it as a text-link or hyperlink (like we did in using the hyper link to the Sears affiliate program a couple paragraphs above). Though clicking on the first link (to Sears) and the second link (also to Sears, but through your affiliate link) will arrive the websurfer at the exact same web address or web landing page, the difference is that the second link will credit you with any sales made at the Sears website.
So, say that a websurfer visits your review site, and proceeds to buy the previously-mentioned washer and dryer. Then, they proceed to surf the Sears website and also buy a dress for their sister-in-law, as well as a power saw, and a lawnmower for his dad… not only do you get credit for the washer and dryer since you were the source of referral for that sale, but you also get commissions on the dress, power saw, and lawnmower as well! In fact, you get commissions for all purchases made at Sears.com for a set period of time.
Every affiliate program has a different payout period for your affiliate link, which are called “Cookies”. Sears, Amazon, and the other companies, will set your affiliate “cookie” to be 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, or sometime in between (or longer). This means that anytime someone makes a purchase at that website within the specified period of time after clicking on your affiliate link, you will get credit for any sales made. So, even if someone comes back to Sears 3 weeks after your referred them to the website, and only then proceeds to make a purchase, you will still get credit for that sale and be paid a commission.
When signing up for any respective affiliate program, you simply need to check what the affiliate cookie period is. It will tell you clearly upon sign up. Here at theChristiandude.com, we have one of the best affiliate sign up “cookie periods” in existence, because we have set it up so that you will get credit for the sale even if a websurfer comes back to our site one year later. On top of that, we also pay recurring commissions. So, if someone signs up for our membership and then remains a member for 9 months, you could be earning as much as 60% of the sale each and every month, on a recurring basis, and for as long as that person remains a member of our site.
If you are interested in becoming an affiliate of ours, just become a free member or paid member of our site! That’s it! Once you are a member at any level, you can begin earning commissions by referring people to our website through your affiliate link. Similarly, you can become an affiliate of countless other sites simply by applying to their affiliate program.
Make sense? If you are interested in learning how you can begin garnering massive prosperity through your own, online, affiliate marketers business, consider joining our site for the best training in existence! This place was made for aspiring, brand new, newbie, Christian Internet marketers. 
One of our main goals is to teach you how to become a successful and prosperous affiliate marketer for any type of affiliate program which you wish to promote, whether it is our affiliate program or someone else’s.
So, we hope that helps you to understand what an “affiliate program” and affiliate marketing is. Thanks for giving this a read, and may God bless you with a wildly prosperous future!
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